An indescribable sensation swept over him. Hades felt as if something was missing, leaving him hollow inside. It was as though something that had always been there had been forcibly taken away.
He held out his hands before him. The sight of the white bones made Hades' heart tighten. He stumbled back in alarm, overwhelmed by fear.
Imagine waking up one day to find all the flesh on your hands had vanished, leaving nothing but bare bones. No one could possibly stay calm.
Although Hades had prepared himself mentally, the sight of his own body still terrified him.
But in the next instant, the fear vanished without a trace, and his mind settled into an unparalleled calm. It seemed nothing could stir his emotions.
"So I really have become undead."
Hades flexed his fingers. Though they had no flesh at all, they moved in response to his thoughts. He had no idea how bones without muscles could move, but that was what was happening.
He raised his skeletal hands to feel his cheeks. As expected, he was a skeleton. Hades turned his body around and found that he felt no discomfort. He could not only feel things but even smell.
He opened his purple-and-gold-trimmed mage robe, slipped his hand between his ribs, and reached into his chest cavity.
"Just as I thought. Completely empty..."
Hades paused, unable to understand how this body worked. It was clearly just a skeleton, yet he could feel things, even pain, though it was faint.
There were no organs between his ribs, yet he could still smell. Without lungs, how could air enter his body and let him detect scents?
Hades had assumed that if he could smell, he must have some kind of organ like lungs, even if he couldn't see it. But when he reached inside, all he found was bone.
Clearly, the laws of his old world could not be used to measure this one. Hades gave up trying to figure out how the undead worked. Now was not the time to investigate.
"'Seed of the World Tree' successfully activated. I am now undead, and one elf race is also stored. Hmm... It will take two minutes before I can activate it again..."
The Seed of the World Tree was fastened tightly around the wrist of Hades' right arm, which was nothing but bone. After each activation, it had a two-minute cooldown.
His undead body made him realize even more clearly that this was the real world. In YGGDRASIL, changing races caused no physical changes for players, but he was having trouble adjusting to his undead state.
In YGGDRASIL, undead could only change races by using the Seed of the World Tree. So, to make use of this world item's special property, Hades had stored the undead race in one of the only two slots available for race data.
Although Hades was uncomfortable in his undead state and wanted to switch to the last stored race, there was still something he needed to confirm. He tried to bring up the undead race's status panel.
Sure enough, the data for his undead character appeared in his mind the next moment.
Character Name: Hahaha Hades
Race: Undead
Gender: Male
Karma: -500
Alignment: Extremely Evil
Role: Magic Caster (Mana-based · Elemental Specialist)
Racial Levels: Skeleton Mage 15, Elder Lich 10, Night Lich 10, Overlord of Death · Sage 5.
Job Levels: Elemental Mage (Earth Element Specialist) 10, Elemental Archmage 10, Elemental Communicator 10, Earth Connector 10, Earth Overlord 10, Evoker 5, Sculptor 5.
Unlike his human race, which was a pure Warrior, Hades' second race was a pure Magic Caster. This combination of jobs could not deliver the greatest possible firepower, but he had his reasons for choosing it.
The reason was none other than the Seed of the World Tree. Since he could switch between his stored races, he could cast various buffs on himself while playing as a Magic Caster. Then, as soon as he switched races, those buffs would carry over to his Warrior character.
That meant that, as a Warrior, he effectively had a mage at his side at all times, ready to buff him. Although an earth-specialist Magic Caster was not the best at providing buffs.
However, the advanced job Evoker synergized very well with Warriors. And if the official competitions had not banned the use of world items, Hades could have easily won the World Champion title with this setup alone.
Without the Seed of the World Tree, he would have considered adding more spellcasting jobs to cover his weaknesses. But with this world item, it was better to commit fully to a single path.
Of course, this did not mean that possessing the Seed of the World Tree was enough to surpass a World Champion. To make use of its special property and achieve a result greater than the sum of its parts, a player had to know their stored race characters well and understand how to coordinate their skills and spells for maximum effect.
The equipment for each character also had to be good. If their foundation was poor, no amount of coordination could produce a result greater than the sum of its parts.
But Hades had money to spare, so each of his race characters was sure to have a full set of divine-class equipment.
"Fly."
Hades cast a flight spell. That weightless feeling returned, just as it had when he used the Necklace of Flight. Controlling his flight felt like an instinct, etched into his mind.
"Now, let's try the last race."
He dispelled the flight spell. The Seed of the World Tree's cooldown had ended, so Hades activated it again. His bony body began to swell and twist outward. In the space of a breath, he had gone from skeleton to living human.
Hades suddenly realized that the emptiness he had felt as an undead had been filled. The hollow feeling vanished without a trace, and he felt as if his whole body had become full again.
So this was a physical change brought on by his race? Although he looked human now, he was not a pure human. Otherwise, the rules of the Seed of the World Tree would not allow him to store a character of the same race.
As before, information about his current race character appeared in Hades' mind.
Character Name: Hahaha Hades
Race: Elf
Gender: Male
Karma: 0
Alignment: Neutral
Role: Production
Job Levels: Blacksmith 10, Armor Smith 10, Weapon Smith 10, Item Smith 10, Alchemist 10, Potion Maker 10, Poison Maker 10, Sage 10, High Sage 5, Warrior 15.
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